Path to Prosperity - SEIU
Path to Prosperity - SEIU
Path to Prosperity - SEIU
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Introduction<br />
The United States is at a turning point. As the incoming<br />
president and Congress look <strong>to</strong> enact measures early in<br />
2009 <strong>to</strong> lift the U.S. economy out of severe recession and lay<br />
the groundwork for a new era of sustained economic success,<br />
it is essential <strong>to</strong> consider the forces that have driven the rise,<br />
stagnation, and fall of our economy in recent decades—and what<br />
they teach us about the path forward <strong>to</strong>day.<br />
Fundamentally, we have two options. We can choose the path set by visionary<br />
business leaders, who understand that workers need money in their pockets <strong>to</strong><br />
buy products off the shelves. Henry Ford, for example, famously increased his<br />
company’s workers’ wages <strong>to</strong> $5 a day so they could buy the cars they produced.<br />
Such an approach is good for workers, companies, and the economy. This path<br />
will allow us <strong>to</strong> build a high-wage, high-productivity economy where America’s<br />
workers can share in the prosperity they help <strong>to</strong> create in their companies.<br />
Or we can follow the model of Wal-Mart, a company that prioritizes the financial<br />
wealth of its executives over the economic health of the country. Wal-Mart’s CEO<br />
Lee Scott recently articulated his company’s opposition <strong>to</strong> the Employee Free<br />
Choice Act and shared prosperity in America this way, “We like driving the car<br />
and we’re not going <strong>to</strong> give the steering wheel <strong>to</strong> anyone but us.”<br />
The decisions we make now <strong>to</strong> confront our economic challenges will help<br />
determine the country we will create for future generations.<br />
A Tale of Two Economies<br />
The s<strong>to</strong>ry of the U.S. economy since World War II is really two s<strong>to</strong>ries. The period<br />
from 1947 <strong>to</strong> 1973 was a time of broadly shared prosperity, with productivity,<br />
profits, and wages all growing <strong>to</strong>gether. It included a remarkable decline in<br />
income and wealth inequality, which some analysts argue was a key pillar of<br />
America’s general prosperity. 2<br />
By contrast, the period since the early 1970s is a s<strong>to</strong>ry of relative economic<br />
stagnation characterized by weaker and less consistent productivity growth,<br />
stagnant incomes, and skyrocketing inequality.<br />
It is no coincidence that the first period of economic success and stability was<br />
also a time when a large portion of the American workforce had input in their<br />
<strong>Path</strong> <strong>to</strong> <strong>Prosperity</strong> 7